Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday directed the centre and state governments to file within a week their replies on a PIL seeking a judicial inquiry into the stampede at the Allahabad railway station on February 10.

The Court also issued a notice to the Centre through the secretary of Railways and directed the state government to seal the records connected with the movement of the members of the Kumbh Mela committee on the day of the stampede.

Sequence of events

On February,10 over three crore devotees land in Allahabad for holy dip on the auspicious occasion of ‘Mauni Amavasya’

The holy ‘snan’ began at 5.15 am and concluded at 5.45 pm

Massive crowds started surging to the railway station from 5 pm

As per eye witnesses police lathicharged at pilgrims that compounded the panic

Reports said that someone fell during the rush, causing others to topple over each other

Incident occurred at 7 PM near Platforms No 5 and 6 where a foot over bridge reportedly collapsed due to heavy rush of pilgrims

Platform No 6 was later sealed by authorities

36 people killed in stampede

It has asked that the said records be kept in a sealed cover which would have to be produced before court on February 20 the next date of hearing.

A division bench comprising Justices Uma Nath Singh and Vinay Kumar Mathur passed the order on a PIL filed on Tuesday itself after it came up for hearing on the permission of the court. The PIL filed by NGO 'We the People' also sought a direction for the prosecution of those members of the Kumbh Mela coordination committee found guilty of negligence and irresponsible behaviour.

Appearing for the state government, Additional Advocate General Bulbul Godiyal said that since the incident had taken place in Allahabad, the PIL was not maintainable in Lucknow, although the petitioner argued that every decision and action of the committee had been planned in the state capital.

The petitioner, Prince Lenin, told reporters that the UP chief secretary, divisional commissioner of Allahabad, district magistrate of Allahabad, DM Kumbh Mela, SSP Kumbh Mela and the Inspector General of police were members of the coordination committee.